Tennessee executes its first inmate in nearly a decade

(ROUGH CUT - NO REPORTER NARRATION) Tennessee conducted its first execution in nearly a decade on Thursday (August 9), administering a lethal injection to a man convicted of the 1985 rape and murder of a 7-year-old girl he was babysitting.

Billy Irick, 59, who had spent more than three decades on death row, was put to death at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Tylee Tracer said.

Pronounced dead at 19:48 Central Time (12:48 GMT).

He became the 15th inmate executed this year in the United States and the first in Tennessee since 2009.

He was convicted of raping and strangling Paula Dyer in Knoxville.

Irick had been a boarder in the home where the girl lived with her mother, stepfather and siblings.

Executions in Tennessee had been put on hold for years due in large part to lawsuits from death row inmates challenging the state's combination of lethal drugs and death chamber protocols.